Spring Cleaning

Apart from raising money for our kids daycare, I’ve been going through the closets. A bit early for the spring cleaning, but I blame Simple Mum, who as a part of the preparation for the Chinese New Years celebration cleaned their house – what a wonderful way to prepare for the New Years! Unfortunately that is not a part of our tradition but Christy got me inspired. So I’ve been inviting a lot of friends over for tea; it is nice to catch up and at the same time they can pick through the kids clothes that are too small. Handy. After all, I don’t want there too be too much ammunition for the Peaceful War Game…

Another way to get rid of items we don’t use has been to sell them on huuto.net, which is pretty much Finland’s Ebay. I can usually be bothered to only put things on sale that actually have some value. This time for example kids winter sleeping bags and winter shoes (and for the ones not used to Finnish prices, a pair of proper winter shoes for kids can cost 80e and a sleeping bag that will keep your child warm even in -20 degrees cost about 100e. Seasons have their upsides but they are costy too) sold very quickly. The Facebook neighborhood flee market groups have also proved useful.

But then there are those things friends don’t have use for but are in good condition. What do you do with them?

This time I’ve promised to hand the children clothes over to a couple of friends, one of them a journalist, who organised an informal collection for children in Syria. The journalist travelled to Libanon and had connections there helping her distribute the clothes directly to the ones in need.

If you don’t happen to know anyone travelling to a place like that at the moment, you may want to check what Family Shelter’s for abused women and children in Finland could use,

be in contact with Hope in Turku for assisting the ones in need in Finland or

Donating to UFF (U-landshjälp från Folk till Folk i Finland rf) would probably be the easiest option though: There are big metal containers by some bigger shops, often next to the glas or metal recycling, where you can throw the clothes in closed bags. The clothes are then sold in second hand shop. The income is used for development cooperation in some African countries and India and among others for schools for street children and schools for youth in remote areas.

If you still wish to get a few euros for those clothes, you may also want to hold on to them until May 14th, when the next Cleaning Days are. I have been selling and buying in the pop up flee markets of the Cleaning Day with good results!

As for books, I though The International Book Giving Day on Feb 14th was a great initiative. It ended up becoming a part of my spring cleaning project: a bunch of book lovers at work ended up talking about what we’d want, and were able to match a few needs and excesses like me getting rid of my old Swedish cartoons to encourage a coworkers son to read more to improve his Swedish. Did you end up participating in the Book Giving Day?

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13 comments

[…] it away, dump worn out clothes at a Name It shop to be recycled, book a table at a flea market, donate for a good cause or wait for the next Cleaning Day (which probably is too late for our purposes). […]

[…] it away, dump worn out clothes at a Name It shop to be recycled, book a table at a flee market, donate for a good cause or wait for the next Cleaning Day (which probably is too late for our purposes). […]

I do love a good purge, I had a lot of clothes given to me when pregnant that were in great condition and then I passed them on to the local shelter for young mums (who then adopt the babies). Everyone needs a hand somewhere in the world

We definitely jumped on board the spring cleaning this year! (Confession: I haven’t quite got around to donating the last of the stuff I set aside yet.) It’s good to know where all the second-hand places are so we can make sure things get their full amount of use!

Even while traveling I have had to purge our suitcases of clothing that doesn’t fit or is not needed a few times. I always give them to people I have met along the way (usually with kids as they are usually z’s outgrown clothes). I love being able to pass them on. 🙂

Donating clothes is so meaningful! I am sorry to infect you with cleaning the house, but glad that the result is a good one 🙂 I have never thought of inviting friends over for tea and have them pick up clothes that are in good condition yet outgrown and no where to keep. I should try that, I have been fretting with that pile of baby clothes and stuff too good to be thrown.

I’m in the process of purging, too. I keep taking pictures of items and a) texting them to my sister to see if she wants; b) posting them on local buy/trade sites; c) setting aside to donate to the local women’s shelter or goodwill drop off.
It just feels good to let go – and yes, Christie was a great inspiration for it!